[color=gold] [color=white]“I am no child of God. I was only alive by the graces of the King, and now that he is…dead, and my men are gone, I have no earthly bonds. Everything that I built my life around has died tonight along with them.”[/color] Tobias gazed at the ground as he listened to her, thoughts dancing along his past in relation of her fate. Its tune was a pattern he had heard before from the many people he had crossed paths with, always bloody...always isolating. He had almost grown numb to it now; so much death simply becoming nothing more than an entry within the scrolls of history, or the plain words written on a tombstone, 'Here Lies a Man'. He could feel himself gripping the skin around his wound, the pain a reminder of the humanity he held onto. With a deep sigh, he drove it to the back of his mind and pulled out one of his daggers. “Ye need not be a child of God to be sheltered underneath his wings,” he said as he pulled her towards him. “With this temporary brand, you will protected from any spirit.” Pouring a little bit of water from his wine-skin onto the earth, he made mud. Then taking her arm and drawing the sleeve back, he rubbed some on her forearm. The knife in his other hand began to sing until the pummel burned softly like the dusky sun. “This will sting, but only for moment.” Gripping her wrist, he placed the brand onto the mud-stained skin for barely a second and let go, leaving a white relief of the symbol. He let the knife cool before sheathing it. “It will only last for three days, but we should be behind His walls sooner than that.” After Amelia soothed herself from the slight pain, she continued. [color=white]“...I am sure with your… contract… you are very accustomed to living a life free of attachment, but I am not.”[/color] That was not quite true, but he remained silent. [color=white]“I remember hearing stories of such brotherhoods when I was a child. I had assumed they were all fables.”[/color] “Aye, there be plenty a story about us,” Tobias said, peering about into the dark forest as he sat back against the wall. “But few would believe the truth even if half the fictions of their superstitions were true. A man's mind is not meant to understand such things.” He spoke almost as if he were describing himself, eyes glazed within a dream. Sighing, he nodded to her as she bid goodnight and continued to watch the moon's light hide behind swaying limbs. He had lost something that day, and for the first time in a long time a wisp of true fear snaked around his heart. It did not leave even between his prayers or mental fortitude. A sense of fate rose within him as he drew in Ameila's form with his eyes, noticing a hue about it. He banished the thought in an instant and closed his eyes, focusing on the tasks at hand. Once he could hear her slow and even breathing, he quietly slipped into the shadows. [center][b]†††[/b][/center] A frost settled upon the night as the witches hour drew closer. Moonlight pulsed through the trees at the height of its power, casting the world within a blue film. Only the whistling wind and aching wooden bones spoke. A sense of death settled throughout the forest. Tobias felt every hair on his body stir as he woke in an instant. Every sense was overwhelmed by the familiarity of what snuck closer, their whispers filled with blasphemy. He watched from above in the crotch of a tree as unnatural movement slithered toward where Amelia slept. There were several of them, each shrouded in hoods. “T-Tobias?” Amelia called. Barely aural laughter replied. “Clara...” Tobias twitched at the voice as it spoke to her, albeit with a different name. He held his breath as they came closer. Suddenly, they stopped and looked before them. “Wards...what silly traps they are.” A voice whispered. “Samson, remove it.” A larger fellow stepped in front of the group and took out a sword. Sticking its tip into the ground, he dragged it onto the boundary. Like flint on steel, sparks arose from the edge and burst into a golden flame. It wrapped around Samson and in the blink of an eye roared about. The light revealed his human face as it screamed in horror, arms stretched out as he turned toward his masters. They stepped back quickly, trying to hide their disfigured faces from the fire. One of them fell forward to the ground with a knife in his back. “Be consumed, devils! Ye shall not escape my flames!” Tobias drove his sword into the nearest demon and shoved its body into the others. One of them bounced off of Samson and into the flames, letting out inhuman shrieks as it was consumed. A third rushed Tobias with a stiletto as he withdrew his sword, and pierced his' leather jerkin inches from his organs. Just as the demon was about to strike again, Tobias stepped back and slid his sword at an angle that both caught and cut the demon's hand. The dagger fell to the ground as the creature dropped back in pain. The Nazarite doubled over in pain with luck as a heavy wind swooshed past where his head had been. Looking up he watched as the devilish leader pulled his mace back to swing again with a smile on its face and glee in its golden eyes. The canvas of flames cast the demon in a destined light. For the first time in his life, Tobias imagined his own death and froze in that moment. [/color]